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Friday, May 21, 2010

Seven Quick Takes

It has been a bit of an off week. Saturday evening a head cold caught me such that I couldn't go to Mass on Sunday and spent three days with a throbbing headache. Then we began visiting houses looking for a future home. It has been an exhausting week but here are some things to smile about.

~~~~~~~1~~~~~~~

I'm not sure where it came from, but one of my new nicknames for any of the girls has become "Honey Bunny." Felicity must have picked up on it because now she calls everyone, "Honey." But once is never enough. We will get called, "Honey," multiple times in one sentence. "No, Honey, not done, Honey. Need more, Honey."It is priceless but you do have to filter out all the "honey"s to figure out what she really is trying to say.

~~~~~~~2~~~~~~~

Elizabeth seems to be under the impression that she cannot leave her high chair until her tray is clean. Of course this does not mean she eats everything. Instead, she puts her palm down on the tray and sweeps it back and forth across the tray until it is clean of all food. I will never ever tell her to "clean her plate." Can you just imagine what my floor looks like with her "swept" food in addition to the food she accidentally drops? Do you have any idea just how much of a plus a house where we eat on a floor that is not carpeted is?

~~~~~~~3~~~~~~~

Yesterday morning the girls were painting with some watercolor paints. Cecilia painted a cross on her blank page and said it was Jesus' cross. I reminded her that Jesus died on the cross and she countered that then He came back to life again. She then said, "How'd he do that?" I said that God did it and said it was a miracle. Soon thereafter, I was at my computer when Cecilia began to excitedly call, "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! There's a miracle in my paints! Come, see!" I went to her and she said, "Look, Mom, a miracle! My paint changed color!" She seemed to have mixed some colors and declared God to have been at work. How could it not make me smile? But isn't she right? Isn't the beauty of color, the magic of changing colors and the gift to be able to see them all the work of God? Talk about appreciating the little things out of the mouths of babes!

~~~~~~~4~~~~~~~

Last Saturday we made our own homemade pizzas from scratch, with the exception of the sauce. We have our dough recipe and we know we like mozzarella with provolone for the cheeses. Now if we could just nail the sauce. Like our pizza paddle? The pizza stone worked really well too! I'd also like to experiment with wheat dough to see if I couldn't make it healthier with more fiber!

~~~~~~~5~~~~~~~

Nursing Elizabeth has been especially challenging, more so than Cecilia or Felicity had been. Since she has been getting 4 teeth at once in the past month, she has become quite the biter. So, can I just tell you how happy I am this morning that she slept from 10pm until 7am last night without nursing once! Ah, bliss!

~~~~~~~6~~~~~~~

Yesterday we saw another house. It met all our space needs and was well kept and quite nice. The inside of the house is all positive. The outside has two more minor negatives, namely the parking situation isn't ideal, though it isn't bad, and the back yard is not fenced in and slopes downward. Those two things aside though, as per my criteria, it would not be a house I'd be depressed to move in to. So, before we even left the realtor, we submitted an application. I really didn't want to think about whether we would get the house or not so I just told God that it was up to Him and He could deal with it. Yesterday had been exhausting enough as it was anyway. Last night the realtor/owner called us and, after some questions and discussion, offered us the lease. She has already emailed it to us. So, at the moment, it looks like we have found our next home. One other big positive to this house is that over 5 miles closer to our parish Church and would save us 5 minutes on our Sunday drive to Church and save us 15-30 minutes on any weekday drive to church, making daily Mass a much greater possibility.

~~~~~~~7~~~~~~~

I wish this picture was a little brighter but look at that face. She is such a happy little angel. She walks, quite quickly, everywhere and loves pushing the toy stroller, the little train, the shopping cart, or anything she can get her hands on. She has blessed us so much!

Wow, reading this is like taking a little bit of a step into my childhood. My Italian grandmother makes homemade pizza every Saturday night. My mother and her sisters carried the tradition into their homes (although my one aunt seems to have issues with the dough, so my grandmother usually makes her some and she freezes it). It is a happy part of my childhood I had hoped to carry onto my kids, but I have dough and sauce issues and my mother has decided she wants to only make dough now out of whole wheat flour and my husband won't eat it and my kids didn't like it, so I am hoping I get the dough under control. The sauce is easy enough to buy in the meantime! And when I was about two I began calling my mother "Honey Bunny." Out of the blue. She then started using it for me :). I'm a new reader here, so I don't know what your "animal situation" is here at home but I seemed to raise those plate clearers you speak of. Having two dogs who enjoy scraps helps (although I never intended them to be fed from the table!) Blessings on your day!

Congratulations on finding your new home! Good luck with the packing and moving.

I always know when Ben is full because he starts to push all the uneaten food onto the floor. Yes, it does get quite messy! I'm trying to teach him to just raise his arms to let me know he's done instead.

I make a pizza dough that is half white flour half whole wheat and I add a couple of tablespoons of ground flax seed for good measure. It gives it a nice nutty flavor. Everyone likes it, even Dom who doesn't really like whole wheat bread.

Here's my sauce recipe. It's very easy and yummy. And the red pepper flakes don't make it spicy at all so it is kid friendly: http://www.bettnet.com/blog/index.php/bella/comments/pizza_sauce/

Kristen, we have no pets and our current and probable future leases do not allow them but I do joke regularly about how if we had a dog, I would never have to clean the floor nor buy dog food.

Melanie, I've wondered if being done eating is why she does that but if I put more food in front of her she keeps eating. So I just do the best I can until I really think she is done and then get out the vacuum. :) That is a great idea for the dough. I will definitely have to give it a try. Thanks so much for the sauce recipe. We will definitely try it out!

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James and Katherine

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Welcome to my tiny nook in the blogosphere. I do try properly swept and up to date though with five young children, there is bound to be a dust bunny here or a stale Cheerio there. I live on the Eastern Coast of the U.S. daily striving to make our homeschool a wonder in learning, our home warm and fruitful, and our journey to Heaven a joyful one.

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